GABlog

We are happy to announce that the previously hypothetical GA Event to be held in Vancouver this July 26-29th is going ahead; in only two weeks, the response was sufficiently strong to warrant giving the conference its “green light.”

The current slate of presenters includes Eric Gans (UCLA), founder of GA; Ian Dennis (University of Ottawa); Adam Katz (Quinnipiac University); Peter Koper (Central Michigan University); Matthew Schneider (Chapman College); and other scholars active in the GA community.

Meanwhile, space remains for more participants, whether presenting or attending as non-presenters.

We invite you to consider joining us in what will certainly be a stimulating and valuable conference in the beautiful city of Vancouver.

Check out our updated versions of the Call for Papers, the Information Sheet, and Tentative Agenda. Please notice the new institutional endorsements from Kwantlen University College, and the more precise information concerning the very affordable Tower Suites Accommodations Option.

We hope to hear from you before or by February 28th.

Best regards,
Andrew Bartlett
GATE Chief Organizer
Andrew.Bartlett@kwantlen.ca

C. S. Morrissey
GATE Assistant Organizer

Stanley Kurtz does anthropology:

In the first part of this piece, I showed that, on a world scale, the radical form of in-marriage represented by the union of parallel cousins is highly unusual. Parallel-cousin marriage is confined almost exclusively to the region once ruled by the original eighth-century Islamic empire, and this involuted form of marriage stands in sharp contrast to the relative value placed on out-marriage, inter-group alliance, and interchange favored by almost every other culture in the world.

Anthropologists once identified exogamy — the tendency to form alliances with strangers by “marrying out

Tom Barnett’s argument: America does not preside over an Empire. It was just first to start working out the rule sets for globalization. The reality is that “globalization comes with rules, not a ruler.”

From the transcript of yesterday’s show:

HH: Now you posed the question which I’m sure many anti-interventionists are having, are forming as they yell at the radio. Quote from Page 301: “What gives America the right to render judgment of right and wrong, or good versus rogue? If America takes on the worst offenders in order to extend the core’s rule sets, then why not take on all offenders? Why not just admit we run an empire?

Generative Anthropology Thinking Event

Thursday 26 July — Sunday 29 July 2007

Meetings to be held on the Campus of the University of British Columbia

Discount Accomodations available at UBC Gage Tower Suites adjacent to the Conference

Call for Papers

For well over a decade now, generative anthropology has been actively circulating in the intellectual marketplace, attracting admirers and inspiring practitioners, raising questions and puzzling the uninitiated. A way of thinking first modelled by Eric Gans in books such as The End of Culture (1985), Originary Thinking (1993) and Signs of Paradox (1997), generative anthropology has since been taken up by a collection of scholars international in range and diverse in disciplinary roots. The online journal Anthropoetics testifies to the fertility of GA, as does the forthcoming The Originary Hypothesis: A Minimal Proposal for Humanistic Inquiry (Davies Publishing Group, 2007), edited by Adam Katz. However, contact between people who do GA has so far taken place mostly in the virtual (electronic) world. This first-time conference aims to supplement that virtuality with a meeting of GA workers face to face, in one place. That place is the thriving post-modern city of Vancouver, nestled in English Bay against the beautiful coast mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Our featured guest, contributing to discussions and exchanges, will be Eric Gans, founder of GA. The conference is named GATE (rhymes with “slate”) for Generative Anthropology Thinking Event.

Participants are invited to submit promise of attendance with papers that apply, explore, investigate, or develop the possibilities for analytical interaction between Generative Anthropology and particular topics. Our preferred formula is “GA and —–,” where the participant has supplied a meaningful item to fill the blank. Broad examples would be “GA and Christianity,” “GA and Consumerism,” “GA and Terrorism,” “GA and the postmodern esthetic.” Analyses of particular thinkers, texts, or artifacts, as long as the analysis is informed by generative anthropology, are also most welcome. The spirit of the conference is to be exploratory rather than targetted. Our goal is to develop GA itself. All papers should be a reading time of 20-30 minutes. In planning the programme, preference will go to proposals accompanied by a promise of attendance. Proposals, 500 words maximum, should be sent by attachment in MS-Word format to the address below. Deadline: 31 March 2007.

GATE is hosted by Sparagmos! the Vancouver GA group. Chief organizer is Andrew Bartlett, instructor of English at Kwantlen University College. All correspondence, questions and proposals, should be sent to Dr. Bartlett.

This conference is endorsed by the Office of the Dean of Humanities at Kwantlen University College, the Office of Research and Scholarship at Kwantlen University College, and the Office of the Provost and Vice President, Academic, at Kwantlen University College.

Dear GABlog readers,

Attached on request you will find a Call for Papers, Tentative Agenda, and Information about the first ever GA conference, which we hope to hold in Vancouver from Thursday 26 July through Sunday 29 July, with sessions occuring the Friday and Saturday, this summer, 2007. The event’s name is GATE for Generative Anthropology Thinking Event.